1. Arguments for Sam and Outcome mapping
    1. pay attention to the partners on the edge of your project, your so-called boundary partners, (who you are seeking to influence) you notice that you can hope for change, design to achieve it and put the effort in but, ultimately, you have very little control over whether your partners adopt the changes
    2. complex situations where it is largely impossible to predict cause and effect it is also impossible to guarantee specific results - that is, results will happen but not necessarily the ones the plan was looking for
    3. projects that are pre-specified in tight detail tend to embed many features that never get used -
  2. Project Design - a hot topic
    1. Latest developments in the field
      1. Log-frame
        1. log-frame' is the name of one version of this that is used in the international development field to handle complicated, large scale projects
      2. ADDIE
        1. from the instructional design field and is used for projects of a smaller scale).
        2. Subtopic 2
      3. SAM
        1. proposes iteration (small, frequent efforts with early prototypes delivered for evaluation) and ligthness (avoiding overcomplication of a design by only proiding for the features that are demonstrated to be used at prototype stage
      4. Outcome mapping
        1. reference to influencing boundary partners and to evaluating the effects of a project after action has been taken - downstream of the 'doing' -rather than tying the success of a project to predetermined outcomes, is designed to be effective in complex situations.
    2. Always be ready to learn and grow
    3. Complex plans out of date before written
  3. Project doing and design as core activities
    1. core of the Gaia University
      1. come to understand what it is that we need to learn and unlearn
      2. learn how to choose the most appropriate and effective places to make these interventions so that our efforts generate the greatest yields for the least effort
      3. a good pathway lifelong livelihood.
      4. transition of human societies to full-scale ecosocial enactment as a series of contained yet connected projects helps us find the motivation to proceed step by step.
      5. As the context improves and our knowledge of it increases it becomes a little easier to see each next step and so our progress accelerates.
  4. What is a project?
    1. 3 conceptions
      1. Conception 1
        1. designed intervention in a system
          1. Donella Meadows intervention points
          2. 12. Numbers: Constants and parameters such as subsidies, taxes, and standards 11. Buffers:The sizes of stabilizing stocks relative to their flows 10. Stock-and-Flow Structures: Physical systems and their nodes of intersection 9. Delays: The lengths of time relative to the rates of system changes 8. Balancing Feedback Loops: The strength of the feedbacks relative to the impacts they are trying to correct 7. Reinforcing Feedback Loops: The strength of the gain of driving loops 6. Information Flows:The structure of who does and does not have access to information 5. Rules: Incentives, punishments, constraints 4. Self-Organization: The power to add, change, or evolve system structure 3. Goals:The purpose or function of the system 2. Paradigms: The mindset out of which the system—its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters—arises. 1. Transcending Paradigms
          3. identifying the leverage points for intervening in a system, with increasing levels of leverage as the numbers go lower.
      2. Conception 2
        1. According to Alan project is anything that takes two or more actions. An action in this context is roughly defined as something you can complete in that short period of time you have before you supposed to be doing something else.
        2. create profound changes in the system by making small tweaks at strategic locations
          1. small qualitative changes can make large quantitative differences'
        3. promises maximum effect for minimum effort [although it implies thoughtful and careful observation over time before the deceptively simple but effective intervention is made].
          1. Permaculture people like this idea because it adds power to our hopefulness that small numbers of thoughtful people doing the right things can turn around an entire culture.
      3. Conception 3
        1. Dragon Dreaming (a project design system that has achieved significant popularity throughout the global ecovillage network) a project is defined as any planned undertaking designed to achieve a goal of specified results within a given time.
          1. Dragon Dreaming talks of creating 'song-lines', (inspired by the song-line approach of aboriginal cultures) that link projects and sub-projects into coherent threads that have clear beginnings and endings. Such a process does exist in more conventional project design approaches and is called 'critical path analysis'. It is not difficult to sense that the process of making song-lines sounds much more fun than finding the Project Design and Management - leaving ADDIE for SAM http://gel.gaiauniversity.org/mod/book/tool/print/index.php?id=821 8
          2. This re-working of old techniques with a significant new creative layer is very helpful
  5. Developing project design and do capacities
    1. We use a combination of competence and attention to highlight that both need to be present for a good job to get done - a person might be competent to do something well but is distracted from attending to it and a person might also have the attention (be willing and able to put time and effort to the job) but not have enough competence to get it done well.
    2. It is a Gaia U goal to bring us all to master level in this area.